Perfect Girl
by Charlie'sLostVampire
Summary: Leo Fitz wasn't sure why he found himself in the Boiler Room but, by the end of the night, he was glad he'd been there.


He really wasn't sure why he was here. He didn't know anyone in the extremely loud, oversized underground room, the flashing lights were giving him a headache, and the beer didn't even taste that great.

Leo Fitz had made his way to the Boiler Room, after hearing about it in the halls earlier that day, with a slight hope that he might finally meet a person at this school who he could connect with. He'd been here a week and a half with no luck whatsoever. People were nice enough, but he wouldn't really call anyone in any of his classes a friend.

He had just risen to his feet and thrown his plastic cup in the trash, about to head back to his dorm, when he felt a slightly smaller body crash into his, nearly sending him toppling back down onto the couch. His arms instantly went out to steady the girl, inhaling a whiff of her lavender shampoo in the process, and he recognized her as one of the girls from his Biology class early in the morning. What was her name again? Jenny? Jenna?

"Oh! Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry; I was trying to get past the dancers, and someone pushed me- hold on. Do I know you?"

Feeling his cheeks turn pink, Leo quickly removed his arms from around her, clearing his throat and nodding, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"Uh, yeah; I mean, no. Not really. We have Biology together, but we've never actually spoken."

"_That's_ why you look so familiar! Your name's Leo, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he stated, nodding, his blue eyes wide with surprise at the fact that a _girl_ of all people was still talking to him after more than two minutes. "But everyone just calls me Fitz; my last name, that is. They don't just call me that for no reason."

Surprising him again, the girl laughed, and he felt his stomach flutter at the way her amber eyes twinkled.

"Well, Fitz, it's nice to finally meet you. I'm sorry it took me nearly tackling you to the floor for us to speak- and I really am sorry about that."

She looked sheepish when she spoke, and he quickly shook his head, offering her a timid smile.

"No, no, it's fine; better to have hit me than the floor directly. That would have hurt…" he supplied, lightly kicking at it with his foot, and she offered him a small smile of her own, followed by her hand.

"I'm Jemma, by the way; Jemma Simmons."

_Ah. Ms, not Ns. _Nodding, Leo smiled properly, taking her hand in his and giving it a small shake, trying not to dwell on how soft her fingers were against his calloused ones.

But, as it would turn out, she wasn't quite finished surprising him.

"Do you want to get out of here? I don't think I can handle all of this noise any longer."

His eyes widening as he fumbled for a response, Leo settled on nodding. Not only was she speaking to him, but she wanted to continue speaking with him? Outside, in an area where it wasn't a social convention to speak to people?

She smiled when he nodded, taking his hand and pulling him toward the stairs, and he followed after her, his fingers ending up laced through her soft ones in an attempt not to lose her in the crowd. Once they were outside in the pleasantly cool air of the September night, Jemma Simmons sighed.

"I honestly don't know why I agreed to go there. I've never been one for parties. Not that I got invited to many back home, but if I had, I wouldn't have liked them. Too much noise and rowdiness, it was all giving me a headache…"

He listened as she chattered and prattled on about this and that, content to just walk with her across the campus as she spoke, offering up a response now and then. He couldn't help but notice that she had yet to drop his hand; instead, she was swinging it lightly as they walked while she explained how she was majoring in Biochemistry.

He couldn't help but find Jemma Simmons fascinating. She was a child genius, like him; it took him a while, but once she really started talking it didn't take him long to piece together who she was. She was the girl from Sheffield who graduated secondary school when she was fourteen, and went on to pursue various science degrees for the next four until SHIELD recruited her. It was a story he knew well, because he'd virtually lived the same one back in Scotland- and, just like that, he felt the connection.

He'd been waiting and waiting for it to happen with someone; that instant feeling that the person he was speaking to could be the person he'd been waiting for. The one person who would understand him and speak to him willingly and not go running in the opposite direction when they realized just how smart he really was.

There was no doubt in his mind that Jemma Simmons was that person and, from the way she was smiling and laughing and speaking with him so eagerly, he had a fairly good feeling that he was her person, too.

Yet, he still felt a bit shy despite the fact that he knew she wanted to talk to him. He wasn't used to having someone pay so much attention to him and, in her presence, even his intelligence felt insignificant. She was this brilliant, amazing, successful girl and he couldn't understand why, no matter how similar they may be, she would want to be friends with him.

Fiddling with the hem of his blue plaid shirt as they walked, he looked up when he realized that, for the first time in nearly two hours, Jemma had stopped speaking. How long had she been quiet? Upon looking up, he realized she was watching him curiously, and he felt his cheeks turn red again.

Not only was she smart, but she was also terrifyingly pretty. Her hair was straight, the bangs pulled back on each side and held together at the base of her head by a silver clip, but he could tell that it was probably naturally curly. It was a bit wavy from the humidity of the day, and he couldn't help but wonder what it would look like if she just let it be. She also had a naturally pretty face with soft, delicate features, and kind eyes that were golden brown in this light. Her eyes in specific remained trained on him as he looked at her, analyzing him as if he were something in one of her text books, and he had to force himself to swallow the lump in his throat. When she blinked and the trance was broken, he made himself relax a little when she smiled.

"You're very interesting, Leo Fitz."

"Interesting?" he asked as she straightened her pale blue cardigan with the hand that wasn't holding his, and she nodded.

"Very."

"What about me is interesting?" he asked, and she offered him another smile. It was a smile similar to the one she'd given him earlier that made her eyes twinkle, and he was almost certain the tips of his ears were red. Hopefully she couldn't notice in the semidarkness.

"The fact that I've been prattling on for hours and hours about dozens of subjects and you've only spoken up a handful of times. You actually listen. Most of the boys here think that they know everything and are determined to shoot down anything that I say."

Starting to walk again alongside of her, Leo frowned faintly. Why would anyone want to do that to a girl like Jemma Simmons?

"I like listening to you talk," he found himself admitting, offering her a sheepish smile in the place of his frown. "I think you're brilliant."

"Do you?" she asked, and it wasn't a sarcastic question, but a genuine one. As bubbly and kind as she was, it was clear that she'd led a life just as lonely as his was. She was used to people putting her down and taunting her for being smart, not praising her for it. At least, people her age didn't generally praise her for it. Even the people here at the Academy were a bit wary of her and, if anything, didn't really like her for being smart because she was smarter than they were. Leo, on the other hand, was awed by her.

"I do," he told her honestly, giving her hand a squeeze, and she offered him a small smile of her own. For the umpteenth time that night, she downright shocked him by leaning up and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"Well, go on, then," she stated, her smile widening as she stopped their footsteps and took a few forward to sit down on the grass to the side of the path, giving his hand a tug for him to sit down beside her. "Tell me more about you. I'd like to listen to _you_ talk for a little while…"

Hesitantly, he sat down beside her, making a thoughtful face.

"Well, I'm majoring in Engineering, for a start…" he told her, and she gave him a soft smile to assure him that he could continue and he had her full attention. After that, he went on to tell her about his life back home in Glasgow, his family, and how his first week or so at the Academy had been going. She was seemingly never going to drop the fact that he really should have spoken to her sooner and, honestly, he didn't mind, because it was true. He _wished_ he'd spoken to Jemma Simmons sooner.

Laying back in the grass after they ran out of things to talk about, having exhausted the topics of Doctor Who, Harry Potter, and both of their fields of study, they settled for pointing out constellations, making wishes on shooting stars, discussing their thoughts on astronomy.

The two of them fell asleep like that, huddled together in the grass by one of the campus oak trees and, despite lacking a real mattress, neither of them recalled a time when they had slept more comfortably.

Plus, in Jemma's case, it helped that Leo made a fairly good pillow… and he smelled nice.


End file.
